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22
" I hope the citizens of the United States will not think
me presumptuous if I say that we have the same confidence
in their outlook upon these great questions which affect the
lives of men and women as we have in that of the British
Empire.
" If these several nations, in spite of all their differences,
can feel this trust in one another, surely it is not fantastic to
imagine that some day all the States which subscribe to the
Covenant of the League of Nations may consent to drop their
recriminations and to settle down in peace to see how they
can make life more worth living for the peoples that inhabit
them.
" When I served as a member of the Birmingham City
Council, I learned one lesson which I have never forgotten,
and that is that in this imperfect world a man cannot have
everything his own way, and that those who get things
done are those who are ready to work with and for others,
and who are prepared to give up something themselves in
order that they may receive something in return. There is
always some common measure of agreement if only we will
look for it, and there is but little satisfaction in standing out
for the last item of a programme on which we have set our
hearts if, by so doing, we are going to miss the opportunity
of obtaining anything at all.
" Those maxims that apply to individuals apply to nations
too. We in the British Empire have gone far to solve our
problems by mutual accommodation; and if, by our example,
by exercising that great and powerful influence which we
have in the world, we can induce others to follow the same
prescription, why then we shall have justified our faith in
ourselves and our mission among the nations of the earth/*